So, Where Will You Begin?

Before I get into the politics of the whole thing, let me pause for a little religion, namely, my favorite hymn. Please take a few minutes and listen with me.

Although I have nothing but admiration for the inspired artistry of Martin Luther as a composer of sacred music, this, my favorite such song, is fairly modern, having been written in 1955 by Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller.

Do you know what the most important line in the song is? The first one: "Let there be peace on Earth?" No, that's not it, although world peace is something we all want. I want it, and so do you. Even the generals in the Pentagon want it.

No, the most important line in that hymn is the second one: "And let it begin with me." Open your typical hymnal and you will see song after song that implies we, the singers, are among the righteous, gathered together to praise the Lord...and that is an excellent way for us to express ourselves. But, what I love about this song is that it starts with the premise that, no, I am not part of the solution, I am part of the problem, and I need help to fix myself before I can presume to ask divine assistance in fixing all those "others."

To be sure, the difference between you and me, on one hand, and Osama bin Laden, on the other, is exponential, but before we can ask whatever Supreme Being we may believe in to strike the hatred from bin Laden's heart, we must first see about the hatred in ours. Even as I write this, I do not claim to be among the divinely enlightened. I will probably do the dance of happiness and joy when I hear that son-of-a-bitch is dead. There, you see what I mean?

Having gone on and on, as I've done, I need to pause here and remind myself, among others, that this is not an essay about war and peace. It is an essay about, "Let it begin with me."

Let me address the genuinely-concerned tea party followers, who actually care about finding solutions and are not primarily perturbed because there is a black man in the White House. I know, I know, it's-let's all say it together-NOT ABOUT RACE. What a trainload of bull-derived fertilizer! George W. Bush, who had the "right" color skin, but whose administration was the worst, not just since the disgraceful term of Warren G. Harding, but including the disgraceful term of Warren G. Harding; George W. Bush, who turned a healthy surplus into an alarming deficit; whose cozy attitude toward the mighty and the powerful of Wall Street enabled our immense recession-the centerpiece of which was the Bernie Madoff caper; who moved to curtail our civil liberties, at the behest of his boss, Mr. Cheney, in ways that the present administration could not even imagine, drew no such ire as Mr. Obama has drawn. And what has been the President's worst sin, apparently among many? Installing a health-care overhaul that was suspiciously similar to one that the well-known Bolshevik, Richard Nixon, tried to sneak by us a few decades ago.

I am absolutely convinced, by the way, that, if Mr. Obama somehow possessed the ability to read Sarah Palin's mind (Something I don't think even Sarah Palin can do), then drew up a health care reform bill that was precisely in tune with her thinking, she would still be sniping away because, in the end, there is a black man in the White House.

Okay, let me dial it back several notches. I know there are thinkers among the tea party crowd, and I know there are yahoos. I just wanted to shake out the latter, so I could speak to the former.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the size of the American debt is truly alarming, and-no, I'm not going to say something needs to be done about it, because that implies that all we have to do is be alarmed, while it is someone else's job to find the solutions. WE need to do something about it.

"Your darn tootin'!" I can hear some of you thinking, but that something is not as easy to do as you might think. It's all well and good to deplore the pork that goes to projects that give you no benefit. It's fine (and cheap) to demand that others who need assistance "get off the tit." If you expect to have the moral license to insist on those things, then you need to tell us, what are you willing to give up? Giving up some black lady's welfare check doesn't count. What are YOU willing to give up to shrink our government and our debt? What thing that government does to make your life easier (and that includes our recent unjustifiable tax cuts) are you ready to sacrifice to the cause? Let's begin with that, then we can talk about all those other freeloaders a little further down the road, okay?

I do not mean to sound so high-and-mighty. When I say this is about "Let it begin with me," I mean "with me." I live in a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC. Many Marylanders have been hoping for the now-approved "Inter-County Connector," which would, with the addition of generous federal funds, help those of us in the area get around a whole lot easier, no question about it. We need more track and stations on our subway system, the Metro, which ends at the close-in suburbs, forcing many of us to leave the train and catch slow, infrequent buses to finish our long ride home. More Metro sure would be nice. And it definitely would be difficult to go back to the days when we were all starving in the streets, before that Bush tax cut. Fine, I'm perfectly willing to put all that on the table, and I'm not even angry about the government. Now, what are you going to put up? You know what they say: "Put up or...well, you get the idea, don't you?"

I don't like the notion of the Chinese holding the mortgage on this nation, any more than you do. So how do we fix that? PAY THE DAMN MORTGAGE! With what shall we pay it, dear Liza, dear Liza? With money, dear Henry, with money. How much money are we talking about? I think it is a whole lot more than we can get by soaking the rich, doubling the "sin tax" and returning empty cans for recycling. We need to raise the revenue, even as we look for ways to trim the federal budget. That, I'm afraid, means more taxes. You can rant and scream and yell all you want, but if you want to get The Yellow Peril off your case, you're going to have to pony up. Period.

You say you want to hold Congress accountable, and I fully understand your frustration. There are a good many in Congress, in both parties, who should be made to seek career counseling for their next job. But are you willing to vote against the fellow or gal who brings the pork home to your district? Personally, I couldn't care less how much swine my congressional delegation procures. I want good governance.

By the way, the line-item veto that so many presidents have yearned for is NOT the answer. It is an affront to the balanced separation of powers and was overruled by the Supreme Court for that very reason. If he had a line-item veto today, President Obama could strike all the Republican pork from a given bill while leaving the Democratic pork alone. How do you think that would affect the GOP's chances on election day?

Let us understand, there are "earmarks," and there are truly necessary needs. I think it is a lot easier to tell them apart than many (the politicians among them) might suppose, but, unless we are willing to give the matter serious study, no differentiation will ever be effected.

I am not asking for or expecting an answer to the question I raised. I do hope you will give it some good, hard thought, and, if you have any constructive ideas along that line, make them part of the debate. And, please, do not be swayed by cheap sloganeering that feeds into your anger. Anybody can yak. In the end, you will want people who can think if you really expect to get these problems effectively addressed.

Thank you for your earnest consideration, whatever your political persuasion.

Sources

YouTubeWikipedia
"Inside Washington," WETA Television